Your Turn — Feb. 11, 2012

:
February 8, 2013
: Updated: February 8, 2013 5:40pm

A reader says President Barack Obama has been busy pushing for gun control and wonders what happened to his plans for jobs and balancing the budget.

More Information

Guidelines

Send letters to: letters@express-news.net

Letters may also be mailed to Letters, Express-News, P.O. Box 2171, San Antonio, TX 78297. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Length? The shorter the better — long enough to make your point. All letters are subject to editing for length and clarity.

The article gives the pros and cons of new residential development in San Antonio's urban city center.

The thinking of City Hall is that “drawing more people to live downtown will help balance the economic mix between residents and tourists, underdeveloped and vacant properties will gain new uses, and pressure to grow outward will decline. The urban core will become denser.”

Could it be the burden is mostly on the taxpayers who are city residents but do not live in the core center nor benefit from the urban development that is a part of Mayor Julián Castro's revitalization initiative, the “Decade of Downtown”?

According to this article, “about $90 million of the overall $596 million bond approved by voters in May will go downtown.” So, our tax dollars are being utilized for this project.

What about the many residents who live in the downtown area who are on fixed and low incomes? Will they be displaced because costs of living in the city center will go up and their incomes won't be able to keep up with the increases in rent, utilities, food, and local transportation?

Will it be the taxpayers' burden to relocate them to more affordable areas in San Antonio or Bexar County as the cost of living goes up when the city center is transformed into a paradise for upwardly mobile professionals and wealthy retirees?

All of these questions began forming in my mind as I read this article.

I doubt if I am the only one who has questions about the validity of this revitalization initiative.

With an election and inauguration behind us, there is much talk at the national level about the U.S. economy and what is the appropriate role of the government and the private sector.

It may be instructive for all our local, state and national leaders to consider the words of Winston S. Churchill.

In his last political speech on Sept. 29, 1959, to his Woodford district, he spoke about capitalism: “Some regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is — the strong and willing horse that pulls the whole cart along.”

Now that the Democrats have a new agenda to distract the public, the Second Amendment, our president and his administration are out in campaign mode to make their push for gun control. What happened to balancing the budget and jobs, jobs, jobs?